Filmmaker Florin Iepan and an estimated two million others of his generation, now in their 20s and 30s, came into this world only thanks to Nicolae Ceausescu and his Decree 770 prohibiting abortion and contraception.
The Swenkas are a group of poor, black South Africans in Johannesburg performing a ritual known as ‘swanking’.
Marina lives in a small, decrepit house in Spain’s Alicante province, a house she has inhabited for 59 years, ever since she married her husband
The Sarajevo Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary last August with a selection of feature films and documentaries. Ten years after the festival was established in the midst of a besieged Sarajevo and ten years after the Dayton Agreement was signed in December 1995, the festival has become a reference point and a committed promoter of films from the region.
Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) remains one of the most influential documentary filmmakers. Yet – aside from the astounding The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) – his movies are rarely screened and little known. The Giornate del Cinema Muto Film Festival in Sacile, Italy (9–16 October 2004) hosted a retrospective of Vertov’s vital silent films. The programme revealed the growth of this zealous practitioner and prophet of documentary, as well as the freshness of his work as a source for current non-fiction films
Evelyn Glennie is a Grammy-winning classical percussionist whose solo work is unrivalled. She is also profoundly deaf. For Evelyn, sound is palpable and rhythm is the basis of everything. Without vibration, there is nothing. From silence to music, sound is felt through every sense in our bodies.
A big rock covered with gold leaves, lying on the edge of the mountainside, glowing in the light of the sun. A blossoming cherry tree illuminated against the dark sky. A close-up of a piece of red, marbled, tuna fish. Three of the many magnificent images in “Mana – Beyond Belief”. The film was shot in high definition video and transferred to 35mm and the HD quality does justice to the medium in this visually appealing work.
In The 3 Rooms of Melancholia, Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo travels to Russia, Chechnya and Ingushetia, all fronts of the Chechen war.
DISCOVERY CAMPUS SYMPOSIUM AT SUNNY SIDE Earlier this year, the BBC appointed Alan Hayling as Head of Documentaries. The Discovery